Documents and other information are exchanged in extremely large volumes over local area networks and wide area networks such as the Internet. Indeed, over the past several years, the popularity of the Internet has increased to the point where Internet access is as common in most office environments as is access to a telephone.
There are numerous algorithms in existence which perform error checking in order to ensure that documents are received uncorrupted in their conveyance through the network. These algorithms however, usually only check items such as spelling, parity, syntax, etc. Whether or not the substance of the documents is received correctly, or is even generated correctly when the information is input into the computer by the entity generating the documents, is a matter largely left to the discretion of the end users of the system. Any automated checking for substance is primitive and largely application specific.
The foregoing problem is particularly acute in the area of the electronic commerce such as banking, letters of credit, invoices, etc. In such applications, one small error can result in a large financial penalty to one or more parties to a transaction.
In view of the above, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable for an automated, efficient and standardized technique for ensuring the correctness of the substance of documents. Such technique should also be flexible in that it should allow for the checking of a variety of different types of documents, each of which may contain different types and values of information.